And this is such a uniquely practical -
and cool - place for a bookshelf:

Pictured above: The new
staircase at the
NDSU
Bookstore at North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D., was
envisioned by a design class that used the book department as a project.
Bookstore director Carol Miller said: "When it was finished, I couldn't
believe how great it looked and how well they used the slant of the
staircase." [Source:
Shelf Awareness].

Still in the realm of books, I'm happy
to report that
Medieval
Cuisine has ranked #12 in Amazon's "Cooking, Food & Wine" Kindle
category. Since its release in July 2011, the book has consistently been
the top seller in the
Food Fare
Culinary Collection.

On a related note, I placed
Medieval
Cuisine - along with six other titles from the collection - into
Amazon's
KDP Select Library, which in essence means I can't sell the specific
books through anyone but Amazon as long as I keep them in the program.
Royalties are calculated on sales and the number of books "borrowed." I
enrolled seven out of thirty-three titles in the program last December
just to see how it would play out, and so far have been quite pleased
with my monthly share of the select "fund."

My only concern is the subsequent drop
in sales of Nook editions in the 33-book
Culinary
Collection. Just removing seven titles in the collection from
available
Barnes & Noble books have nearly cut my Nook revenues in half. The
Amazon royalties offset the loss, but I'm not truly comfortable with
limiting access to the books, especially for those who use the Nook
e-reader exclusively. I'm debating whether to remove the specific titles
from the
KDP Select Library next month, thus making them available in all
e-reader formats once again.